Sunday, 11 February 2018

And a (very) belated Happy New Year... a number of unfortunate events in life have meant I haven't had opportunity to pick up the brushes recently, but hopefully normal service will be resumed. Next out of the Lead Mountain was this beastie. Minifigs were one of the earliest manufacturers of fantasy figures in the UK, and their focus was on producing miniatures that would be used to reproduce fantasy battles, rather than RPG characters - this meant that when the D&D craze kicked in, Minifigs tended to be get left behind. They did try and adapt - their later figures were actually quite good - but it was too little, too late, and they faded quite badly. Certainly their early figures look very simplistic, almost like toys. This is one of the later ones. Now, I usually avoid larger winged figures - they fall over, the wings get broken off, and they gather dust - but I wanted to see how well this held up after 30 years! Assembly wasn't that easy - the wings needed pinning in, and then superglue and Milliput to fill in the gaps - and the entire figure needed to mounted on a square base to stop it toppling over. After that, the paint job, and the golden rule with older minis - keep it simple. Base red and yellows, and then a ink washes to bring out any details... which was a mixed bag. The wings came up well, but the torso less so - instead of scales the sculptor had gone for an unusual "lumpy" style, which didn't really respond too well, and the ink tended to pool. Dry brushing and highlights helped a bit, and after that it was a matter of picking out the detail on the head - mostly the eyes and teeth. I'm fairly happy with the result, and I really like the figure - the pose is great, and some of the sculpting is excellent, especially around the head - but the lumpy torso and the lack of detail on the claws is a bit of a disappointment. Still, as a generic dragon for encounters it will do just fine - the Asgard crossbowmen look suitably worried - and considering it is over 30 years old, I think it holds up pretty well!